Italic languages facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Italic
Latino-Sabine, Italic–Venetic
Ethnicity:	Originally the Italic peoples
Geographic distribution:	Originally the Italian Peninsula and parts of modern-day Austria and Switzerland, today worldwide
Linguistic classification:	Indo-European Italo-Celtic? Italic
Proto-language:	Proto-Italic
Subdivisions:	Latino-Faliscan (including Romance) †Belgic? †Lusitanian? †Sabellian †Siculian? †Venetic?
ISO 639-5:	itc
Distribution of the Italic languages on the Italian Peninsula in the first millennium BC

The Italic languages are a group of languages that belong to the larger Indo-European language family. The earliest known Italic languages were spoken on the Italian Peninsula thousands of years ago.

The most famous ancient Italic language was Latin. This was the official language of ancient Rome. Rome grew powerful and eventually conquered the other Italic peoples before the time of Christ. Because of this, other ancient Italic languages slowly disappeared. Their speakers began to use different forms of Latin.

Over time, the everyday Latin spoken by people (called Vulgar Latin) changed a lot. Between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD, it developed into the many Romance languages we know today. Languages like Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese are all Romance languages. They are the only Italic languages still spoken by people today.

Besides Latin, other ancient Italic languages included Faliscan, Umbrian, Oscan, and South Picene. These languages are now extinct. We only know about them from old writings found by archaeologists. Some other ancient languages, like Venetic and Siculian, might also be Italic, but experts are still debating this.

In ancient Italy, other languages were also spoken. Some were Indo-European, like Celtic and Greek. Others, like Etruscan, were not related to Indo-European languages at all.

Most experts believe that the Italic languages came from Indo-European languages. These were brought to the Italian Peninsula by people who migrated there around 2000 BC. These migrants likely came from areas north and east of the Alps mountains. However, exactly where these people came from and how their languages developed in Italy is still a topic of discussion among historians.

Today, the Romance languages have over 900 million native speakers. This makes Italic the second-largest branch of the Indo-European family. Only the Indo-Iranian languages have more speakers.

Most Italic languages, including the Romance languages, use alphabets that came from the Old Italic scripts. These scripts were based on the alphabet used by the Etruscans, which itself came from the Greek alphabet. Some exceptions exist, like Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino), which can be written in Hebrew, Greek, or Cyrillic scripts. Also, some forms of Romanian used the Cyrillic script in the past.

How Linguists Study Italic Languages

Historians and linguists study how languages change over time. They generally agree that the ancient Indo-European languages of Italy, which were not Greek, belonged to one main group. This group is similar to how Celtic and Germanic languages form their own groups.

For a while, some scholars thought that Latin and Faliscan languages were one group, and Oscan and Umbrian languages were a separate group. However, most experts today believe that all these languages came from a single common ancestor language.

Family Tree of Italic Languages

Here is a simplified family tree showing how the Italic languages are related. This classification is widely accepted, though some parts are still debated.

History of Italic Languages

The Proto-Italic Period

The Proto-Italic language was likely spoken by ancient Italic tribes who lived north of the Alps mountains. Evidence suggests these people had early contact with speakers of Celtic and Germanic languages.

These Italic peoples probably moved into the Italian Peninsula during the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. They slowly spread towards the southern parts of the peninsula. Archaeologists connect the Proto-Italic language with ancient cultures like the Terramare culture and Proto-Villanovan culture.

Languages in Ancient Italy

Main language groups in Italy during the Iron Age (around 700 BC). Some of these languages are not well understood today.

Around 700 BC, during the start of the Iron Age, Greek settlers came to southern Italy. They brought with them the alphabet, which they had learned from the Phoenicians. This alphabet quickly spread across the entire peninsula. Different groups adapted it to create their own Old Italic alphabets.

By 700 BC, many languages were spoken in Italy. These included Indo-European languages and several non-Indo-European languages. The most important non-Indo-European language was Etruscan. We have many ancient writings in Etruscan, but its origins are still a mystery. Other non-Indo-European languages included Rhaetian in the Alps and Ligurian near modern-day Genoa.

The Story of Latin

The history of Latin in ancient times can be divided into several periods:

• Archaic Latin: From the 6th to 4th centuries BC, we have old inscriptions and fragments of ancient laws and hymns.
• Pre-classical Latin: In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the first literary works in Latin appeared. These included comedies by Plautus and Terence.
• Classical ("Golden") Latin: This period, until about 17 AD, saw Latin reach its peak. Famous writers like Cicero, Caesar, and Virgil wrote their masterpieces. The language became very refined.
• Classical ("Silver") Latin: This period lasted until about 180 AD. Writers like Juvenal and Tacitus created important works. During this time, the rules for how Latin sounds, its grammar, and spelling became final.

As the Roman Republic grew, Latin became the most important language across the Italian Peninsula. The other Italic languages gradually disappeared, probably by the 1st century AD. From the everyday spoken Latin (Vulgar Latin), the many Romance languages eventually developed.

Latin spread with the power of Rome, replacing other languages like Illyrian, Messapian, and Venetic. By the 1st century BC, most of the Italian Peninsula spoke Latin. Only in the south of Italy and Sicily did Greek remain dominant for a longer time.

Where Italic Languages Came From

A big question for linguists is whether all Italic languages came from one single "Proto-Italic" language. Or did different groups of people bring several related, but distinct, Indo-European languages to Italy?

We only have written records of these languages from about 700 BC onwards. This is when the alphabet was introduced to Italy. The oldest writings in Umbrian and Faliscan are from the 7th century BC. Their alphabets came from the Etruscan alphabet, which came from the Greek alphabet. We don't have reliable information about the languages spoken before that time.

Some linguists believe that it's hard to reconstruct a single "Proto-Italic" language that could have developed into all the different Italic languages. They suggest that the ancestors of these languages might have entered Italy separately. However, many common features connect these languages. This might be because they were in contact for a long time, influencing each other.

How Italic Languages Are Different

Italic languages share some general features in their sounds and grammar.

Sound Changes

One interesting feature is how certain ancient sounds changed. For example, in Latin, the sound *kʷ (like 'kw') stayed the same (written as 'qu'). But in Oscan and Umbrian, this *kʷ sound changed to a 'p' sound. So, for 'who?', Latin has quis, while Oscan has pis.

Grammar Features

In grammar, the Osco-Umbrian and Latino-Faliscan languages share a few special features. For example, they both developed a specific way to form verbs that describe actions that "will be done."

Shared Words

The Italic languages share many words with Celtic and Germanic languages. This suggests they might have been related or in contact a long time ago.

Here's a comparison of some numbers in different Italic languages:

The asterisk (*) means these forms are reconstructed by linguists. They are not directly found in ancient writings.

Map showing the approximate areas where centum (blue) and satem (red) languages were spoken. Italic languages are centum languages.

Italic languages are known as "centum languages". This means they kept a 'k' sound (like in Latin centum for 'hundred') where some other Indo-European languages changed it. They also kept six cases for nouns and adjectives, which is a way words change their endings based on their role in a sentence.

P-Italic and Q-Italic Languages

Just like some Celtic languages, Italic languages can be divided into "P-Italic" and "Q-Italic" groups. This depends on how they changed a specific ancient sound, *kʷ.

• In the Osco-Umbrian branch, *kʷ changed to a p sound.
• In the Latino-Faliscan branch, *kʷ stayed similar to a 'kw' sound (written as qu in Latin).

See also

In Spanish: Lenguas itálicas para niños

• Italo-Celtic
• Italic peoples
• List of ancient peoples of Italy
• Romance languages
• Indo-European languages
• Languages of Italy